


Day 1: Shaky Hands

by Aelaer



Series: Whumptober 2019 [1]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Medical Procedures, Obsessive Behavior, Shaky Hands, Stephen Strange Bingo 2019, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 12:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20948414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelaer/pseuds/Aelaer
Summary: Four months after the crash, just as he woke up from his third procedure on his destroyed hands, Stephen heard one of his former coworkers in the hallway say, "He's obsessed about curing his hands."He internally scoffed at their words. This was not an obsession; it was due diligence.





	Day 1: Shaky Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1 of Whumptober 2019. Brought over from tumblr.
> 
> Also a fill for Stephen Strange bingo square, 'obsess'.

Four months after the crash, just as he woke up from his third procedure on his destroyed hands, Stephen heard one of his former coworkers in the hallway say, "He's obsessed about curing his hands."

He internally scoffed at their words. This was not an obsession; it was due diligence. He was released from the hospital three weeks after the accident and from the rehabilitation center another four weeks later, and at the ten week mark he was no better than he was at six weeks. Despite the constant work at the physical rehabilitation process, his hands  _ would not stop shaking _ .

His hospital, at first, would not agree to do a procedure on his hands ten weeks after the crash, which was complete bullshit to him. However, Stephen found a reputable orthopedic surgeon out in California that was willing to do a small, experimental procedure on only his right hand, which was less severely damaged than his left (five pins versus six; not that that mattered, because it shook just as badly). He was in surgery eleven weeks after the accident. Insurance wouldn't cover any of the experimental surgery, of course, but it was a reasonable $75,000 so he wasn't worried.

Five weeks after that surgery and the shaking was still there and it was still happening, but he was constantly reading and constantly researching and he realized that his hands were possibly not healing fast enough due to decreased blood flow in his brachial and radial arteries. This might be solved with a newer form of angioplasty with vascular stenting. He brought this up in his next meeting with the top orthopedic surgeons and the administrators at the Metro-General.

They agreed it was a possible solution and they agreed to take his money at that time, though they said it was due to the fact that the work would largely be done at his wrists rather than his tender palms and fingers. His former place of work was quite generous, however, in covering one third of the cost of the procedure in honor of all his work for them, leaving him with only $180,000 left to pay.

Stephen rolled his eyes to himself as his former coworkers walked away from his door. Some people really didn't get it. Being proactive hardly made a person  _ obsessive _ . He knew a cure had to lie somewhere and he'd find it.

Hopefully the procedure they just completed with the stents did what he was hoping for them to do regarding the speed of his tissue regeneration. Regardless if they did or not, he still had a surgeon in Boston who was willing to try a more invasive fasciectomy on his left hand four weeks from now. And he was already looking for another orthopedic surgeon who had experience with the newest research in regenerative medicine with the peripheral nervous system for his right hand.

And if those didn't work? Well, he already had three more avenues to explore beyond those. And he'd explore all his possible options after that, if necessary. 

Anything to fix his shaky hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:
> 
> \- Not a doctor, but I play one in an online game.  
\- Canonically, Stephen has his car crash on Feb 2, 2016. Scott Derrickson has said that the events in the film take place over the course of about a year.  
\- The Ancient One says he had seven procedures. I'm including the initial emergency surgery as one of them.  
\- In order to fit six more surgeries in a time period of like, 7 months at most, and to have that one scene where both hands are covered for an experimental procedure, that scene basically can be the only time both hands had work done on them at once. He'd have to switch off on the other surgeries to give them at least something resembling a halfway decent recovery time.  
\- The stent with the brachial and radial artery procedure is taken from the brief bit of meeting dialogue in the film and about 10 minutes on the NIH website.  
\- Stephen Strange was a complete moron with his hands. There's a reason large, non-life-threatening procedures aren't done consecutively like this.


End file.
